Useful Terms To KnowBattlestar Atlantis - The battlestar it all takes place on.Viper MK II - The primary fighters used by the pilots.Raptor - The larger craft used for carrying groups of people.CAG - Commander Air Group. The officer in charge of the pilots.

I used the BSG rank structure, making O'Neill a Commander (and in charge of the entire ship, as well as the entire fleet in thsi case), and Sheppard a Captain (making him a ranking Pilot). If I write more, I'll do a better briefing of the BSG rank structure for non-fans so they don't get lost... lol

John Sheppard ducked into the engine room of the Daedalus, eyes skimming the hectic, if msotly empty, room until he spotted a pair of legs sticking out from under one of the engine drives. He walked over, dropping down to his haunches. "How's it looking?"

"I can probably get us one safe jump, about a 50/50 on a second jump, and about 25/75 on a third jump," came the reply as the figure pulled themselves out from under the engine. "But I can't even give you 100 on the first jump. We could blow the pod and end up stranded, or we could explode on exit, or we could get lost wherever it is we go when we jump. We might never come out of the jump," Ryan Atwood explained. "There's no way to know."

"So, the only 100 is if we stay here and wait to either starve or be found by the Cylons?" Sheppard asked.

Ryan nodded, wiping his hands on the legs of his jumpsuiot then resting his elbows on his knees. "Pretty much."

"What's your take?"

"You meant what do I think we should do?"

"Yeah."

"You're the one we chose to be in charge, Sheppard," Ryan pointed out.

"And you're the one who's been working on this thing for 12 hours," Sheppard replied. "If it was just you, no one else's life at stake, what would you do?"

"I'd rather have some chance than no chance," Ryan said. "I'd do the jump."

"Alright," Sheppard agreed, nodding. "It ready now?"

"As ready as I can get it," Ryan said.

"Then I guess I better let everyone know to prep for jump," Sheppard said, straightening up. "Come on, I want you on the bridge."

"I should stay and..." Ryan began, gesturing.

"I want you monitoring power levels where you can tell me without using the comm," Sheppard said, giving Ryan a hand up.

"Been nice knowing you," Sheppard called as he glanced over at Ryan, who rolled his eyes.

"Full charge, we are go!"

"Activating!" Sheppard responded. It took just a few moments, but somehow it seemed longer and rougher than usual, and when the Daedalus was spit bakc out, most of those on the bridge collapsed, retching onto the metal grating. Sheppard himself felt like joining them, but forced himself to stay upright as he glanced at Ryan, who looked a little green, but was still on his feet. "Status?" he called.

It took a moment, but Ryan finally responded, checking his own station first. "Power levels stable, I don't think they'll blow, not yet, anyway," he said. Then he slowly, visibly wavering on his feet, moved to the sensors station, shaking his head. "Empy space, no one's here."

"Better to go now, get it over with," Ryan advised. "If someone can't survive multiple jumps in a row, they can't survive war."

"Good point," Sheppard said, licking his lips, then nodded and keyed the comm. "Brace for jump," he said.

"Powering up. Five.... four..."

"Hopefully you're better than you think," Sheppard said.

"Hopefully I'm half as good as you think I am," Ryan repleid. "Full charge!"

"Jumping!"

This jump was worse, and Sheppard doubled over in discomfort, managing to keep his stomach from revolting, even as he saw Ryan drop to the floor, retching like the others. There was a slight red tinge to Ryan's bile that mae Sheppard flinch, but he could get over to check on the teenager, let alone the consoles. "Status?" he managed to croak out.

"Alive," Ryan replied, but he was pulling himself up. "Power levels fluctuating, but... not in the red, I think we're safe for the moment," he reported before stumbling to the sensors. "Empt..." he began, only to stop. "Multiple jumps into system!" he called. "These sensors are shit, but... I think it's Colonial!"

"Can you get the Wireless working?" Sheppard asked.

"I think so," Ryan said. "Alright, transmitting. I think."

"This is John Sheppard, calling Colonial ships, anyone hear me?"

There was silence for a moment, and Sheppard bowed his head. "Transmit again," he said. "I repeat, this is Captain John Sheppard calling Colonial Fleet, requesting response. We're in it bad over hear, need assistance."

"I think so," Ryan said. "It's our last shot. If we can get within close range, we can piggyback through a jump, but we cannot make another one after this on our own."

Sheppard reached for the comm, but Ryan halted him with a shake of his head. "What?"

"Don't tell them, just do it. Most people are to out of it to even realize, and if they know it'll be worse," Ryan said. "They'll tense for it."

"Give me the count," Sheppard said, moving his hands bakc to the controls.

"Five... four..."

"Third time's the charm."

"Full charge."

"Jumping," Sheppard confirmed.

And then they were there, almsot close enough to touch the fleet, and proximity alarms were going off. "Report!" Sheppard barked.

"Power levels spiked, but dropping to stable," Ryan said before painfully moving to the sensors. "We've got Vipers in coming, and a Battlestar well within what our range should be."

"Wireless," Sheppard said. When Ryan nodde,d he started. "This is Captain John Sheppard on board the Daedalus, requesting assistance from Colonial Fleet. We have survivors here and we need help. Please respond."

There was a long moment of silence, and Ryan sagged against the wall again.

"This is Commander Jack O'Neill of the Battlestar Atlantis. Good to hear your voice, Captain."

Sheppard couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped. "And yours, Commander!" he replied. "Our engines are just about friend, we can't make anymore jumps, but we can piggyback."

"Technology evolves," Ryan said quietly, and Sheppard turned to see him on the floor. "We designed out computers to learn, why wouldn't they learn and adapt? All the better to kill us?"

"Who was that?" O'Neill asked.

"My engineer," Sheppard said, elaving his station to check on Ryan. "Who's sitting on the floor dying every second we waste," he added. "Why the frak would Cylons put operatives on a penal ship? We're condemned to die, so why would they bother?" When there was no immediate response, Sheppard hung his head. "Without the fleet, we're defenseless. Before the guards abandoned ship, they took every signel weapon, they took medical supplies, they took food, they even took a smuch water from the tanks as they could. Without the fleet, we're all dead in a few more days. We just want a chance to live."

"We don't have time to evac you ebfore the next jump," O'Neill said. "But you siad something about piggybacking?"

"Yes, sir, we can do that," Sheppard said. "Do we have 5 minute for me to get within the Atlantis' jump range so she pulls us?"

"Do it, I'll get a couple Raptors prepped to evac as soon as we come out of jump, tell you're peopel to stand down, no hostile actions or they will be shot."

"I don't think any of us are in any condition to resist," Sheppard said. "But I'll give word."

"How many?"

"Maybe 30," Sheppard said. "We lost a lot in the initial attack. And a lot mroe when some of the worst of the worst got out of their cells and decided to ahve some 'fun', but the rest of us got rid of those few. What's left will do whatever you want us to if it means we'll be allowed to live."

"Won't be a slave again," Ryan murmured weakly.

"As long as it's not pure slave labor," Sheppard ammended. "Some of us would rather face the Cylons than that."

"We'll work out something," O'Neill promised.

~~~

After the jump, which surprisingly went smoother than the last three, Sheppard puleld one of Ryan's arms around his shoulders and half carried, half drug, the teenager down to the airlock, arriving just as the first of the Raptor soldiers exited. "He's in bad shape, take him ont eh first load, will ya? Tell the doctor he's got blood in his bile."

"You're not insisting on being on the first load?" one of the Colonials asked.

"They made me the man in charge, and I'm making sure my people are safe first," Sheppard said. "I'll go with the last batch."

"Sheppard?" Ryan questioned.

"Don't cause problems, keep everyone calm," Sheppard ordered.

"Yes, sir," Ryan replied as he was loaded onto a stretcher and loaded into the Raptor.

~~~

"Why is it that when a couple of your people started fighting the medics, four of my people couldn't stop them, but that kid puking up blood did with a single sentence?" O'Neill asked as Sheppard and the last half dozen of the Daedalus' denizens arrived in medical.

"They know better than to piss him off," Sheppard replied. "Ryan was arrested and convicted of murder. He shot a man through the throat and elft him to drown in his own blood. Didn't even try to escape, just sat in front of the house stargazing until the screams of the man's wife alerted neighbors and authorities arrived, not a care in the world." He saw how the guards shifted and rolled his eyes. "He was 15 and he'd been doing slave labor for as long as he coudl remember. He got tired of being beaten, used, and sent back to work, and the onyl escape he ahd was killing the guy. But then he didn't know where to go because his world was the factory he worked in. So he got caught. He's only a threat if you threaten him."

"He's the one you said was you're engineer?"

"Ryan's got a knack with anything mechanical," Sheppard said. "Even the guards would get him to fix things that were going haywire."

"You think he could learn how to fix Vipers and Raptors?" O'Neill asked.

"Maybe not using official methods, but he can juryrig anything to work," Sheppard said.

"O'Neill!" a man said as he pushed through the small crowd. "Is this him?" he added when he faced Sheppard.

"Rodney McKay, this is Captain John Sheppard, he took command of the Daedalus," O'Neill said.

"Who got your engines running?"

Sheppard narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Those engines were almsot completely rebuilt," McKay said. "I can see the damage from being shot at, and yet someone got them running and whoever that is, I want them on my team," he added, the last part directed at O'Neill. "Unless they're dangeorus psychopaths."

That's all folks!

IF I continue this, I will introduce other fandoms and characters... like Dean Winchester as a pilot...

I knew there was something drawing me to my computer...yays! I'm liking what I see a lot and I do hope you continue. I mean mechanical genius Ryan and Dean Winchester as a pilot? What else could one ask for? lol.